Teen killed in Bedouin town brawl between rival clans

A teenager was killed and several others were wounded, including a woman suffering a serious head injury, in a brawl Saturday afternoon in the Bedouin town of Rahat, in southern Israel.

Reports put the number of those involved at nine or ten. The 16-year-old youth, who was shot in the upper body, was taken to Soroka Hospital in Beersheba for treatment, but after several hours succumbed to his injuries.

There were also two children among the injured.

Magen David Adom paramedics were first made aware of the violence when some of those involved arrived at a local medical facility shortly after 1 p.m. local time. Paramedics were dispatched to Rahat’s Neighborhood 34 and evacuated seven people – one in critical condition, three in moderate condition and two in light condition. They were taken to Soroka. Two other people were treated at the scene for light injuries.

The brawl reportedly erupted between two families

A large police force managed to calm tensions, according to Hebrew outlets, but firefighters who came to put out a fire that broke out at the scene of the violence — for reasons yet unknown — were pelted with rocks and other objects.

“We arrived in Rahat following a report of a brawl and a fire there. The team that arrived at the homes was met with a crowd of locals who started throwing rocks at us,” Adir Naim, one of the firefighters, told Haaretz.

The commander of the local firefighting team decided to withdraw the forces until police back-up arrived.

“When we saw the tensions start to die down, we entered a second time accompanied by a police force. We doused the fire and started looking for anyone who could have been trapped. This time too, we were met by people throwing rocks at us,” Naim told Haaretz. The team withdrew again until police managed to restore order.

No police officers or firefighters were harmed in the incident.